Guterres added, “Plastic is made from fossil fuels – the more plastic we produce, the more fossil fuel we burn, and the worse we make the climate crisis. But we have solutions.

Last year, the global community began negotiating a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution.

This is a promising first step, but we need all hands-on deck.

A new report by the UN Environment Programme shows that we can reduce plastic pollution by 80 per cent by 2040 – if we act now to reuse, recycle, reorient, and diversify away from plastics.

We must work as one – governments, companies, and consumers alike – to break our addiction to plastics, champion zero waste, and build a truly circular economy.

“Together, let us shape a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future for all.” The World Environment Day is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people across the world.

The year 1972 marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics: the first major conference on environmental issues, convened under the auspices of the United Nations, was held from June 5-16 in Stockholm (Sweden). Known as the Conference on the Human Environment, or the Stockholm Conference, its goal was to forge a basic common outlook on how to address the challenge of preserving and enhancing the human environment.

Later that year, on 15 December, the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating June 5 as World Environment Day and urging “Governments and the organizations in the United Nations system to undertake on that day every year world-wide activities reaffirming their concern for the preservation and enhancement of the environment, with a view to deepening environmental awareness and to pursuing the determination expressed at the Conference.”

Source: Qatar News Agency